/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

> DM Curse of Strahd
> Party goes to Old Bonegrinder
> Meets a strange raven there, who seemingly understands humans and tries to warn them against going inside.
> Goes to Blue Water Inn in Vallaki
> Meets a shitload of strange ravens there sitting on a roof
> Gets incredibly suspicious, but doesn't connect the dots
> Back to Old Bonegrinder
> Sees a strange raven there again - but this time a different one
> Threatents it with weapons
> Raven mockingly caws and flies away.
> Back to the Blue Water Inn.
> Tavern owner visits the party leader and offers him a quest
> Because he "heard they're risk takers and heroes"
> He doesn't get suspicious about how could he know that
They're about to visit Wizard of the Wines. If they go through the entire campaign without realizing that they have wereraven allies, I've won at Curse of Strahd.

Tell me, is there something I missed, or is guiding bolt completely OP for a 1st level?
4d6 damage is enough to drop almost all creatures at this point.

It can be cast twice per day, user.

It's once per day, and the average damage is 4 points higher than hitting something with a greatsword.

Here's my in-progress setting handbook.

How does it look so far, /5eg/?

>completely OP
Hardly. Martials can put out that damage easily, it is eventually outclassed by cantrips, and it costs a resource better spent on Bless or Protection from Evil and Good.

I swear to god, if it's catgirls homebrew again...

Its not even close.

If I invent dynamite/etc in a game, would you say it does force or thunder damage?

Playtest material always aims for the stronger side and is drawn back for their final revision. They also frontload stuff so they can be playtested more quickly Expect Natural Explorer to have its features more distributed by the time it's in a hardcover.

That said, the revised ranger works fine in games. It's not that broken or exploitable.

I would go for Thunder. Thunder is for shockwave type effects. Force is more of a weird null element thing.

DMG pg. 267. Dynamite deals bludgeoning damage.

> You can't kill a werewolf with explosives
This just doesn't seem right.

>Need to tenderize steak
>No mallet? Not a problem!
See, that's why I can't be doing with that.

Has the similarities this has to an Otyugh ever been discussed? Or did I just miss that?

Dynamite is a saving throw, it's not an attack. Their immunity is to nonmagical attacks so they are just as vulnerable to dynamite as anyone else.

You'd need silvered dynamite for that

...

Favoured enemy is still only against one classification of monsters. In all possibility the only benefit is an additional language.
Natural explorer is now solid. It makes the Ranger no longer slaved to a single terrain type to be noticeably good at wilderness survival. So, at first level, they are now strong, if those favoured enemy is what thenDM is throwing at them.

However, they weaken considerably at later levels.
They don't get a second attack any longer, although some archetypes get equivalents. With the errata about magic bows, their offensive power takes a hit (munition loosed from magic missile weapons, such as bows or crossbows, are now considered magical themselves and thus incompatible with Ranger archery spells, all of which stipulate that they may not be used with magical ammunition).

Foe slayer is better... marginally. It still relies on secondary stat at best.

As casters, they are still slaves to spells known, leaving them far less flexible than anyone else who casts with wisdom. Also, their spells are still shit.

In short, the revision is only busted in comparison to the original. It starts strong, but any lead it has over other classes quickly disintegrates.

Where is Ireena?

I laugh at you for how much work you put into this. I hope your players like it.

>being this autistic

How do you like these dragon changes?
>Gold dragons have radiant breath
>Iron dragons now weakest metallic dragon, have poison breath
>New strongest chromatic dragon has thunder breath
I'm still thinking what color new chromatic should be

>being able to read = autistic
???

I've given Ireena to one of the players in order to avoid a DMPC hanging out with the group. Through Donavich I've advised the party to dress her up in armor to disguise her as a man, so Strahd's servants won't recognize her.
It seemed like a good idea at the time (Ireena will have to fight for her life along with other PCs, since Strahd's servants won't know they're not supposed to harm the guy in the armor), but it turned out to be a huge mistake, since Ireena's player took it as "My character will never, ever talk in the presence of NPCs in order to mantain her disguise".
I'm kinda puzzled what to do with it now.

>The DM's Guild is the primary appeal of 5e D&D.
Thoughts?

It certainly offers something interesting that the other editions have lacked.
>Original Content.
>Conversions of older material.
>Reliance on Customer Ratings in order to separate the wheat from the chaff.
>Far more manpower than WotC is willing to muster for D&D.
>Content continues to be produced and available, so long as there's interest in the game itself.

DM's Guld produces homebrew, and my DM will never allow anything that didn't come out of books or unearthed arcana. I'm sure so will a lot of other DMs.

>>The DM's Guild is the primary appeal of 5e D&D.
>Thoughts?
Not really at all. The primary appeal of 5e is how easy it is to get into and how smooth it runs in-play. The DMs Guild is mostly trash and people rarely leave ratings, let alone reviews.

The only stuff that gets big and get tons of ratings on there is stuff by people who already have a following, and the high ratings aren't necessarily because they're any good, just popular

Published, and reviewed homebrew.

And a lot of it isn't character options, anyways.

You mean to tell me your DM would go out of his way to avoid using the monster writeups and adventures, regardless of their quality, simply because they weren't written by WotC employees?

>People rarely leave ratings, let alone reviews.
Ugh.

>The only stuff that gets big and get tons of ratings on there is stuff by people who already have a following, and the high ratings aren't necessarily because they're any good, just popular.
What makes their content popular if it's not any good?

>The primary appeal of 5e is how easy it is to get into and how smooth it runs in-play.
Ah. Well, I have a hard time seeing the big appeal of that aspect, as I have found most RPGs easy to get into. (3.x, and GMing for GURPS notwithstanding).

>Published, and reviewed homebrew.
Doesn't make it good, I gave up on D&D because of how much shit I've had to outright ban

I'd go with either purple or yellow.

Why though?
Gold dragons didn't deal radiant damage in previous editions.

Four things.

>1. Why does everyone assume I'm necessarily talking character options rather than all of the stuff designed to help the GM?
>2. If you gave up on D&D, what do you discuss in the D&D 5e thread?
>3. Do you ban stuff in the PHB?
>4. Were you just letting players play using any DM's Guild option they wanted, without reading them over first, or something?

The campaign is already ongoing. This is just a guiedbook for others, basically.

>are now considered magical themselves and thus incompatible with Ranger archery spells, all of which stipulate that they may not be used with magical ammunition)
Depends on the spell. And for the two that care, Conjure Barrage and Conjure Volley, you can just throw a dagger. Or just about anything else, really.

Why are beholders considered "the" DnD monster? Most fanart I see uses that as their monster of choice.

Yeah, but it makes them more unique since, was it brass or copper that also has fire breath? Or Bronze? No one really cares about the metallic dragons lets be honest.

They aren't part of the open game license, so along with Mind Flayers they're unique to D&D.
Also the captcha, lingwood, jsut remind me of wholeling halflings.

Because unlike dragons, trolls, orcs, kobolds, undead or demons, beholders were entirely created by DnD.

...

How would you stat a grim reaper's scythe?

Scythe +3. If it hits incorporeal undead, the creature is destroyed, and it's soul is transported to the appropriate afterlife.

You are not autistic, you are the autism incarnated triying to do a bait.

Would you use strength or dex? The reaper doesn't strike me as a particularly beefy individual.

But then again maybe that's why it's a +3.

Related question:

Ignore the "related question" bit.

And do shitty damage that is in all likelihood reduced by the level you use the latter.

I think that if Grim Reaper has to fight somebody, something has gone seriously wrong. Grim Reaper isn't exactly known for killing people left and right, he tends to appear after the fact.

Is immunity to nonmagical attacks the absolute pinnacle in 5e?
There's nothing beyond nonmagical? Like immunity to below +3 weapons?

Wizard; noun
An individual with phenomenal cosmic powers and no sense of right and wrong.

Also Umber Hulks and Displacer Beasts.

And they still use the Gith and Slaadi, which Charles Stross invented (albeit stealing the name (and only the name Githyanki from something GRRMartin mentioned in a novel, in passing) for Publication in White Dwarf's Fiend Factory, and which they only had the rights to for printing in that single issue - They've been used illegally since the original Fiend Folio.

Stross simply didn't have the funds to take on the company to get his monsters back.

From what I understand, he still uses them in his non-D&D fiction from time to time, and WotC hasn't tried to bring him to court over it.

Read an interview with him a few years back. Interesting stuff.

I like the idea of the grim reaper being a bounty hunter of sorts. Perhaps if someone has cheated death one too many times, or they've otherwise lived past "their time" and whoever hires the reaper, perhaps the Raven Queen, is just making sure that person doesn't go on living past what they're "supposed to."

So sure. I guess you could say in that case, something has gone seriously wrong.

What did the Gith look like originally before they devolved into hideously fugly creatures?

Probably closer to a wizard staff that can cast a Death spell while also functioning as a quarter staff style weapon with a +2 or +3

Definitely a strong artifact, but death strikes me more as a caster than a scythe fighter.

Whats the opinion on allowing players to charm person/mind control other PCs?

Probably the same, but less rotten

Question, how much would buying a lifestyle permanently cost?

I'm having a really hard time figuring out stuff to spend my gold on. I got decent armor, sword and equipment.

>Alchemists have a werewolf trapped in a magical forcecage from which it cannot escape
>Teleport in dynamite and see what happens
>Increase the power of the dynamite until no more werewolf

my group has an unspoken rule about taking away other players agency.

If another player wants to "mind control" another, both players need to be on board BEFORE doing so.

365 times the base.

Depends on the group. (Just to get that out of the way)

But I'd say let them. Remember charm person isn't really a mind control spell, and most of the "mind control" spells are fairly limited in their usage. Suggestion being the exception, I suppose.

As a DM I'd let it fly and play out so long as the one doing the controlling isn't being a complete dick about it. It depends on their intentions. And if one player uses suggestion to force a player's character to do something like "go home," you can tell the player that "home" is whatever it means to them. Perhaps home is with their friends, AKA the group. There are any number of ways to cheese out of any real consequence. I also typically rule that people are aware they were charmed after it wears off unless the spell specifically says otherwise.

I imagine reapers as warlocks, typically. As part of their contract they must spend a number of years (or eternity?) reaping whenever they are called upon to do so.

I guess I would agree in that case, they are casters. Perhaps I'd give the scythe some sort of reach and let them be "polearm masters" just for the purpose of defending themselves if someone comes in to close.

That's not a lot. ~1,5k for a wealthy lifestyle.

That's what happens when a game uses DM fiat currency.

That more gold then most people will see in their lives.

Yeah but.. Like.. My character is lvl 4.

Is my DM doing this whole "reward" thing wrong?

is it time?

Working on stats for an atropal, what do you guys think?

CR should be 32

Did you use latex to make this?

how many party members you got? at 5th level you should have ~500 gold.

Why not 69

if i want to multiclass paladin and warlock, what would be the best level split to look at? i definitely want at least 11 paladin. i was thinking 17 pal/3 lock, though 4 lock and 5 lock both look interesting.

For a year.
Let's assume you want to live 20 years after retiring. Now it's 30k. Assuming 1 gold piece is 80 dollars (which is what I figured it to be, the prices in the book are wonky), that's 2.4 million dollars.
Before buying a house or any other large expenditures that wouldn't fall under lifestyle.

that's just silly

Counting me, 4.

We just cleared a tomb from some ghosts and some sort of wraith and we found a large amount of coins and jewels. After the split my character has ~1k GP in coin and a couple of hundred more in jewels and jewellry.

Oops, wrong image sorry. Here's the atropal. Don't know how spell like abilities work, sorry.

What you really want is Paladin 11/Sorcerer 9. Warlock doesn't get Hypnotic Pattern.

Yeah. I'd imagine the scythe is more for style when they're killing peasants.

If you have the embodiment of death though, they're probably going to be able to kill just by pointing at someone, so Finger of Death or Power Word kill fit perfectly, and lets them reap adventurers as well.

I don't know why.. but I'm going to save this and read it cover to cover.

Just develop a gambling problem. Your problems with excess wealth will vanish overnight!

Yep!

A lot of the pages are just whitespace between chapters, so it's not quite as long as it seems.

Why not make a Sun dragon that's an inverse of a shadow dragon?

lol oh God.

Have you read about Krezk? Something Old (I think it's the name) could be hilarious.

Sauce of image?

Please no....

Okay, since my players are VERY likely to learn the true identity and history of Van Richten soon, I need to get several questions cleared up. Please note that I'm asking about the new canon, in which Barovia is located in Shadowfell, not Ravenloft, and was always closed off.
1) What's the history between Van Richten and Strahd, exactly? Both Strahd and Barovia have been cursed for five centuries, and it's borders are closed to everyone but vistani and occasinally werewolves. Does Van Richten know a way to enter and leave at will somehow?
2) For how long has Van Richten been in Barovia? He apparently has a vistana apprentice, Ezmeralda AND a homebase in a tower, so it couldn't be that short. But it couldn't be that long either - there's no way he could stay under Strahd's radar for years.
3) Also, what is the relationship between Ezmeralda and Van Richten?

There is immunity to piercing/slashing/etc in the MM. Just most allow magic weapons to be awesome.

I've decided to cut Something Old from the adventure entirely, since Sergei is really fucking weird and creepy in this scene.

Van Richten is from another domain in canon.